Baseball

For those who have been at work all day, one little blog posting has caused some strong reactions.

Yesterday 'JROD' over at midwestsportsfans.com posted an article about Raul Ibanez's great start over in Philadelphia. The article, entitled "The Curious Case of Raul Ibanez: Steroid Speculation Perhaps Unfair, but Great Start in 2009 Raising Eyebrows" got a response that the author never could have imagined.

On the whole, Chicago Cubs fans are a gentle bunch.

That willingness to boo that gives White Sox supporters a little extra bite? It just isn't our style.

That penchant for mass collective sarcasm that Yankees fans have perfected? Not our cup of tea.

Sure, once in a while, we have a "getting drunk and throwing garbage on the field" problem. And certain segments of the bleachers are reputed to have a bit of a racism problem.

Nick Blackburn (Minnesota Twins) at Athletics, RHP, 19 percent owned

Stat Potential: Win, ERA

Risk Factor: Moderate-High

The Twins were supposed to have one of the league's best rotations, top to bottom, going into this season. While Scott Baker struggled out of the gate, Francisco Liriano is simply struggling. Kevin Slowey has eight wins, but that's more a case of strong run support, as opposing hitters are batting a robust .317 against him this season.

With the Yankees current situation in Fenway getting worse, the Yankees are desperate for a win.

The Bombers, now are 0-6 against Boston, are looking for someone who can get the job done against the potent Red Sox offense.

They are just looking for a guy who won't let up a home run to Big Papi.

Mike and Mike in the Morning had a discussion on Tuesday about which sports franchise was the greatest dynasty in professional sports.

They obviously included the Yankees with their 26 World Championships, but the argument for them boiled down to the Yankees or the Los Angeles Lakers.

• Date: June 10, 2009
• Time: 8:11pm
• Teams: Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox
• Park: US Cellular Field
• Weather: 64 and partly cloudy
• Starting Pitchers: Justin Verlander (6-2, 3.26)  John Danks (4-4, 5.10)
• Records: Detroit (32-26)  Chicago (27-32)
• Last 10 Games: Detroit (5-5)  Chicago (3-7)
• My Two Cents: This seems like a classic, over-confident game&md
  

Last night was about as grueling a game as you can play, and considering the offensive show that the Phillies put on, the Mets were fortunate to pull the game out. Johan Santana was not at his best, but he kept the team in the game, and a Ryan Church homer in the seventh made the difference.

Tonight is a new story. The Mets will go to battle with the Phillies’ cream of the crop, Cole Hamels. Hamels is coming off his best start of the season, when he five-hit the Manny-less Dodgers in a complete game shutout.

Today, I’ll keep things short and sweet.

Remember this day Mets fans.

June 10, 2009

This was the day you had nothing to complain about. As fans we have spent the last few seasons dissecting this team for flaws and we always find at least one. To be honest, I am sure if you really go over last night's 6-5 victory over the Phils you will find a few warts, but if you choose to do so, you will be missing the point of last nights win.

The Mets played with fire: Johan and Frankie saw to that.

The Mets and Phillies squared off at Citi Field and, as usual, the game was very eventful.

Two of the more striking aspects of the game were both unusual, one was good for the most part, but the second part is a bit alarming, even though they won the game.

The seven home runs generated by both sides in a pitcher-friendly park was the first part.  It was good to see the Mets generating runs and hitting well on a Santana start, even though he surrendered four home runs himself and was not as sharp as usual.